Los Angeles Dodgers right fielder Andre Ethier was placed on the 15-day disabled list Wednesday with a strained left oblique. The move is retroactive to June 28, and Ethier is expected to return to the lineup following the All-Star break.

"We just thought it was the wise decision at this point," Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said. "The best-case scenario was getting to be Friday and we have a day game on Saturday and Sunday, which you wouldn't ask him to do after coming off this, so it didn't seem to make any sense."

The Dodgers activated second baseman Mark Ellis to take Ethier's place on the roster.

Ethier looked like he was ready to return to the lineup this week but experienced some pain on a swing earlier Tuesday. He has not played since suffering the injury on a check swing June 27 in San Francisco.

"It was definitely minor, but it's still there," Mattingly said of Ethier's injury. "He said as long as I don't miss, I'll be fine, but you miss sometimes. It just didn't seem to make any sense of taking a chance of missing four weeks, which was the situation we had with Matt (Kemp) where we thought he was ready. I don't really want that."